ANDOVER Town’s recent revival in fortunes continued with a 2-0 win at Fareham Town – despite playing a large part of the second half with ten men following the dismissal of Ope Aromona.

Fareham seemed to have escaped the morning rain, though there were black clouds looming as Andover posed the first threat with Toby MaCauley firing straight at keeper Luke Hutchings after good work by Jordan O’Donnell.

A Fareham free-kick found Andover keeper Jake Wellesley-David in no man’s land but Graham Lindsay’s header was too high.

The black clouds gave way to heavy rain as Andover came close to an early lead with a repeat of the earlier happening at the other end.

Hutchings was nowhere near O’ Donnell’s free-kick but Danny Urry’s header was cleared off the line by Louie Martin and scrambled away for a corner.

The home side’s reprieve was brief, as Claudio Herbert’s kick was powerfully headed home by Joe Woodward. Urry collected a caution for a challenge and Lindsay followed suit for dissent over an offside decision before Lindsay and Wayne Boud combined neatly but the latter’s cross was too close to the keeper.

Andover were forced to replace the limping Craig Blakeman with Olly Yeates then O’Donnell collected an unnecessary booking for kicking the ball away before a Herbert run and cross found no blue shirts in the area.

Wellesley-David, whose handling in the difficult conditions was exemplary all afternoon, collected two corners in a crowded area and, in the last action of the half, saved well from Boud at close range.

Alex Dockree wriggled through on the restart but was blocked at point blank range by Hutchings and Boud was again denied by Wellesley-David before Andover doubled their lead.

Urry found Yates on the right and the wing man cut inside on to his favourite left foot and drilled the ball low past Hutchings.

Lewis Benson came on for Urry and Fareham brought on Bradley Norton and Dan Jones before Fareham were handed something of a “get out of jail card” by the referee.

Aromona’s challenge on the edge of the box perhaps looked worse than it was because of the conditions but the referee decided that he was the last defender and produced the red card.

Bradley Benson replaced Herbert for the final 15 minutes to strengthen the defence, Jones saw a goalbound shot strike a defender rather painfully and when Lewis Benson sent Dockree clear the midfielder’s effort was way too high.

Boud was cautioned for a challenge on the touchline with Fareham’s Sam Knight and Andover’s Ike Robertson also cautioned for their part in the resultant melee before the final whistle.